April Fools Day - No Foolin'

I was going to post some bogus April Fools Day post - like maybe why this is the last blog post I'm doing because of several law suits by the big three domestic manufacturers, or maybe how I'm packing everything up and moving to New Zealand next month. But then I thought about someone, somewhere out there in Internet-land would take it completely seriously... especially if it was posted on Facebook. I mean if it's on Facebook, it just HAS to be true.

But April 1st and the month of foolery has offered us some cool things blessed by the Gods of Speed. One of the biggest automotive landmarks that came about in our glory era was the release of the AMC Gremlin. American Motors design chief Richard Teague, and stylist Bob Nixon discussed the possibility of a shortened version of a new AMC compact car back in 1967, especially since the Rambler's looks were getting a bit dated. On an airline flight, Teague's solution, which he said he sketched on an air sickness bag, was to truncate the tail of a Javelin. The original concept car from 1968 looked pretty cool if you could get used to the back end of it. Too bad that exact model wasn't released. Hitting the showroom floors on April 1st 1970, the new economical Gremlin was a love / hate relationship. AMC managed to sell just over 25,000 Gremlins in that abbreviated model year and managed to produce over 650,000 of them until production ended in 1978.

The only performance highlight from that 9-year model run was the Randall 401-XR. Randall AMC in Mesa, Arizona received AMC's endorsement to build 401 cu in V8 powered Gremlins. The cars started out as 304 V8 models from the factory and after Randall's modifications would run 13.90 seconds at 103-106 miles per hour in the quarter mile, and sold for a mere $2,995 - a true bargain if there ever was one. A total of twenty cars were built for the street and one for the strip between 1972 and 1974. Car Craft magazine tested one with some modifications and achieved 115.07 miles per hour in 12.22 seconds while still remaining a "totally streetable, daily-driver".

Drag racing hit the tarmac hard that Spring back in 1964 as the use nitromethane officially returned to the NHRA after a seven year ban. The popularity of drag racing was hitting an all-time high that year as well. The muscle car wars had officially started, the mighty Chrysler 426 Hemi was released just a month or so before in February, and was doing battle with Ford's 427 as well as Chevy's 427 Z-11. The A/FX racing class was in full swing and getting crazier by the week. If that wasn't enough, by the end of the year, drag cars that were originally intended for A/FX, turned into wheel-standers. Rigs like "Hemi Under Glass" and the "Little Red Wagon" would change the sport forever.

One final note - we wanted to let you know your shoe lace is untied. April Fools...

Until next time, peace out.
Dave